Geodynamic evolution and genesis of the Cannington Broken Hill-type Ag-Pb-Zn deposit, Mount Isa Inlier, Queensland

TL;DRAbstract

The Cannington Ag-Pb-Zn deposit is located in the southeastern area of the Palaeo- to Mesoproterozoic Mount Ise lnlier, northwest Queensland. The orebody is totally concealed beneath 10- 60m of flat-lying, semi-lithified Cretaceous to Recent sediments of the Eromanga Basin. The deposit constitutes an economic resource of 43.8 million tonnes (Mt) at 11.6% Pb, 4.4% Zn and 538g/t Ag, and currently the mine is the world's largest Pb and Ag producer. The deposit has been classified as a classic Broken Hill-type (BHT) Pb-Zn deposit based on remarkably similar geochemical, mineralogical and host rock affinities to the giant -280Mt Broken Hill deposit in New South Wales, Australia; the holotype of the BHT classification. Conjecture over the genesis of the Cannington deposit has arisen because of two disparate lines of thought. Metamorphogenic models assume that ore textures, mineralogies and chemistries are a record of the primary ore formation process, whereas syngenetic models consider that

Chat with Paper

AI Agents for this Paper